Buoyant OTE helps limit market losses
Solid gains in OTE Telecom helped trim losses on the Athens bourse yesterday as the broader market slipped in line with soft European peers. OTE added 1.11 percent to 10.92 euros, bringing its gains in the last four sessions to more than 4.5 percent. «The stock… has discounted some bad news recently and is trading at a discount to European telecoms,» said a telecoms analyst. The Athens benchmark general index eased 0.42 percent to 1,820.41 points, up seven points for the week. «Nervousness and weak European markets affected the Athens market. Under these conditions and the lack of domestic news flow we had a retreat,» said Dimitris Skapinakis, analyst at Marfin Bank. Blue chips slipped 0.11 percent to 890.59 points. Mid-caps dropped 1.0 percent and small-caps fell 0.55 percent. Turnover was 91.75 million euros on 19.5 million shares traded. Losers beat winners 171 to 119 with 64 shares unchanged on 354 traded. (Reuters)
